Tuesday, January 10, 2017

Meralco all set for 20-day Malampaya shutdown

THE Manila Electric Co. (Meralco)
said it has drawn up its own proposed measures to help mitigate possible price
hike and power outage during the 20-day shutdown of the Malampaya gas facility.

In an initial report to the
Department of Energy (DOE), the utility firm recommends, among others, to
“postpone the reimposition of excise tax on fuels for power generation.” At the
same time, Meralco also proposed for “the approval of FiT-All [feed-in-tariff
allowance] increase to mitigate the rate impact during the Malampaya shutdown”,
which starts on January 28 and will last until February 16.

On its own, Meralco said it would
continue to carry out its information campaign on energy efficiency through
its various programs. More important, it will conduct a forum for Interruptible
Load Program participants for the possible ILP implementation in the event that
the Luzon grid would be placed on red-alert status during the shutdown.

ILP works by calling on business
customers with loads of at least 1 megawatt (MW) to run their own generator
sets, if needed, instead of drawing power from the grid.

With the ILP, power supply from the
grid that will not be consumed by participating customers will be available for
use by other customers within the franchise area. Through this, the aggregate
demand for power from the system will be reduced to a more manageable level,
helping ensure the availability of supply.

Around 900 MW are enrolled in the
program. Of which, 793.07 MW are signed participants and 107.54 MW could be
tapped as potential participants that would aid the utility firm in addressing
sudden power outage in its franchise area.

Meralco’s ILP had helped avoid power
outages in some incidents of yellow and red alerts.

A yellow alert is issued by National
Grid Corp. of the Philippines (NGCP) when contingency reserve is less than the
capacity of the largest synchronized unit of the grid. In Luzon this is
equivalent to 647 MW, or one unit of the Sual power plant.

A red alert, meanwhile, means that
there is severe power deficiency. Further, Meralco has instructed First Gas,
Santa Rita, and San Lorenzo gas plants to run on alternative or replacement
fuel during the shutdown.

However, this is more expensive than
natural gas. Natural gas as fuel only costs around P4/kilowatt-hour (kWh),
while replacement fuel, such as diesel, costs around P6 to P8/kWh.

The Department of Energy (DOE) made
an assurance that it is exploring all possible options and remedies to maximize
protection for consumers.

The DOE noted that, during the
maintenance activities, some power plants are on scheduled maintenance, as
well. Based on initial study, the lowest projected power-supply capacity during
the period stood at 8,747 MW on February 18, while highest demand is projected
to reach 8,610 MW on February 9.

As such, the DOE also encourages
consumers to practice effective “demand-side management.”

“The public should also be proactive
in computing the effect of price adjustments to be provided in the simulations
given by the agencies concerned to for consumers to practice efficiency
measures to avoid price shocks,” Energy Secretary Alfonso G. Cusi said.